The long answer (Stephen drones on-pun intended)

1. An environment suitable for bees. You are blessed by living in Alaska’s Interior; our normal weather is the best in the State. It rains too much in SE Alaska (washing nectar from the blossoms and confining bees to the hive on wet days), the North Slope and Aleutians are too cool and windy, and the Kenai and Mat-Su areas suffer a maritime climate much cooler and wetter than our normally beautiful warm sunny days with long hours of daylight. That said there are no guarantees; we can have wet, cool summers (2014), late springs (2013) or even too dry as plants need adequate soil moisture to produce nectar, the first step in honey production. Bees will fly about 3 miles (5 km); you can make a survey of their potential forage area by drawing a 3-mile radius circle around your planned apiary (place where bees are kept) location (use Google Earth or a topo map), get a field guide to Alaskan wildflowers and identify as many plants as you can. If you Google the scientific (Latin binomial) name and bees or honey production you can get info on how attractive and productive the flowers near you are. Remember though, just because it’s a good honey plant in Wisconsin does not make it so in Alaska, but it gives you an indication. The 3-mile radius most likely won’t be a perfect circle; if you have a hillside of black spruce in one direction there is not much forage for the bee in the bogs.How about my garden? The bees will do more for your garden through their pollination efforts (especially squash family) than your garden will do for your bees. We’re eating flowers (broccoli, cauliflower) or leaves (spinach, cabbage & lettuce) which as you can guess are not that attractive to bees. Also think on this- in a 3-mile radius there are more than 2,700 acres; how big is your garden?I did a study in 2009 and found that more than 50% of the honey production in Interior Alaska can from non-native “invasive” plants such as clovers, vetch and Prunus (crab apples, choke cherry etc.). I won’t advocate planting non-native species but neither will I join the annual “weed-be-gone” stomp out.

2. A spot to put the bee hive(s). My suggestion is to start slow (1-2 hives), learn from the inevitable mistakes, and grow into keeping more than two hives if that is your passion. Bees can be kept almost anywhere; there are no City or Borough regulations on keeping bees in the Fairbanks area. You still need to be a good “beekeeping neighbor”; keep a source of water available so your bees are not attracted to the neighbor kiddie pool or dog dish, face hives away from foot traffic areas and manage your bees (you may think a swarm is exciting but the neighbors will freak). Bees in Fairbanks need every advantage including early morning sun; if you’re fortunate enough to have an early riser location that’s where they should be placed; East, SE or South with maximum sun is the best exposure.

3. A hive amenable for the bees to live in. There are several styles of beehives; bees can and do live in just about any cavity – 55 gallon oil drums, discarded ammo boxes, hollow trees (scarce in FBKS), and very commonly in the walls or soffits of houses. We can divide beehives into three rough categories; fixed comb, moveable comb, and moveable frame; each has advantages and disadvantages.

Fixed-comb hives are the originals- the honey comb is fixed by the bees to the upper surface and cannot be moved or inspected without destroying the integrity of the hive. These types of hives are very common in the third-word, developing countries and have been used for thousands of years. They are illegal in Alaska; State law requires that the combs MUST be moveable to allow for disease inspection. If you’re Mr. Natural and have dreams of hollowing out a huge spruce log for the bees to live in you must make accommodation for the combs to be removed for inspection. Warré hives (more about those later) in which bees build “natural comb” must be fitted with top bars and the bees restricted from adhering comb to the side wall to conform to State bee laws.

Moveable-comb hives can be considered the next step up; Kenya top-bar, Tanzanian top-bar and Warré hives fall into this category.

The bees fix their combs to a top-bar (normally a strip of wood of the correct width) and can be moved; allowing for better management and inspection. New combs are very delicate and must be handled with care to prevent breakage. When using top-bar the width of a top-bar is the only critical dimension and it is dependent on the bee specie being managed. Our European honey bee (Apis mellifera) requires a center-to-center spacing of 1⅜” (35 mm), African bees require 32 mm while Asian hive bees require 28-30 mm. We only keep European honey bees here in Alaska so if making top-bars make them exactly 1⅜” wide, it is usually best to have some sort of comb guide. This can be a piece of foundation (about ¾” wide), a strip of wood, Popsicle sticks or, if you’re handy with a table saw, cut a 45° angle (^) and the bees will build off the sharp edge.

Fixed Comb Hives

The classic European skep with fixed comb. African fixed comb hive, both illegal in Alaska.

Kenya Top-Bar Hive

Left: 3rd world beekeeper uses locally available cheap materials to build Kenya top bar hive.Middle: Contemporary American design has view window in the side.Right: Kenya top bar hive with division boards to adjust hive volume.

Tanzanian Top-Bar Hive

Warré Hive

Above - even with top-bars and comb guides (???) bees can build wonky combs in a Warré - pay attention and correct before they develop bad habits. ​Right - an exploded view of Warré components; boxes are added on the bottom (nadiring) to increase hive volume requiring the whole colony to be lifted - generally a two-person job.

The Langstroth Hive

4. An interest in bees and nature as well as some instruction.Beekeeping offers Alaskans a sense of self-reliance and is in keeping with the homesteading lifestyle. At the same time pay attention to the oft-quoted bumper sticker- “We don’t care how they do it on the outside”. The Internet offers a plethora of techniques and advice – too many sites offer statements like “In March, when the maples begin to bloom...” which do not pertain to our calendar. My best advice is to take class or find a mentor who has some appropriate experience. (click on the "class" button on the home page to find out about class offerings this year.)Beekeeping is an activity which allows a close association with nature and the natural cycles. You’ll pay much more attention to flowers and their bloom times, the weather and the integration of beekeeping activities into your summer schedule. Learn to be a BEEKEEPER not a “bee-haver” Beekeepers learn to base their management techniques on what the bees tell them and an understanding of bee biology whereas “bee-havers” simply dump bees in a box and hope for some honey by the end of the season.

5. Of course- Bees!Honey bees are not native to Alaska not even to North America. The “bees” folks complain about showing up at picnics and bar-b-ques are most likely yellow jackets, distantly related to honey bees.In Alaska we manage colonies of European bees (Apis mellifera) but within this species there are many races; you might compare it to dog breeds, from Chihuahuas to Great Danes they are all Canis familiaris but look at the variation in the races or breeds! Each race of bees has certain characteristics but just like the Golden Retriever that bites the mailman or the Pit Bull that’s a wonderful family dog these characteristics are not set in stone. Everyone has their preferences- Russian, Italian, Carniolan or whatever but to sum it up- the best bee is the one that survive your management.I bring in "package bees" each spring (usually every weekend in April and the first one in May). You can buy 3 or four- pound packages or a four pound package with two queens (recommended for more advanced BK). These bees plus adequate equipment and a bit of instruction are all you need to get started. Send me an email (akbeeman2000@yahoo.com) or give a call (457-2440) to order bees.

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